Just a few months after announcing a deal with OpenAI, Disney has reneged on that position and will no longer be moving forward with the tech company. This comes after the announcement that OpenAI has shut down the Sora AI video app. In this post, we’ll share the news before adding our commentary on what this might mean for Disney going forward.

I don’t typically speak outside of the theme park business but after knocking this deal when it was announced in December, it seemed right to comment after the deal reversed course. Reversed course might not be the right phrase. Some may prefer to say that the deal ‘fell apart’ instead.

The crux of the reversal seems to be around OpenAI abruptly shuttering Sora, their video app that infamously began with free use before relinquishing control to actual rightsholders. Sora’s shutdown comes only a few months after debuting. Here’s OpenAI’s statement from today, shared on X and other platforms:

We’re saying goodbye to Sora. To everyone who created with Sora, shared it, and built community around it: thank you. What you made with Sora mattered, and we know this news is disappointing. We’ll share more soon, including timelines for the app and API and details on preserving your work.

Following that, reporting quickly came out that Disney’s deal with OpenAI, which included 1 billion dollars in investment, would not be continuing. It appears that no money has been invested at this point. A statement from Disney reads:

“As the nascent AI field advances rapidly, we respect OpenAI’s decision to exit the video generation business and to shift its priorities elsewhere. We appreciate the constructive collaboration between our teams and what we learned from it, and we will continue to engage with AI platforms to find new ways to meet fans where they are while responsibly embracing new technologies that respect IP and the rights of creators.”

As more details have come out, it appears that Disney was blindsided by the shutting down of Sora. Dawn Chmielewski and Deepa Seetharaman (Reuters) reported that as recently as last night, the two companies were collaborating on a project.

This story has been shared by Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Reuters and several other outlets.

This deal falling apart comes a little over 4 months after it was announced. That deal included the aforementioned billion dollars from Disney as well as a 3 year licensing agreement where Sora could create short form content that would include 200 animated or masked Disney characters. Some of that content would then show up on Disney+ down the road. Obviously, none of that is happening now.

I’ll turn more to commentary now that the details are out of the way. Thank goodness. I was extremely frustrated when this deal was announced and it always felt like a sell your soul to make some money situation. A company that was once known for locking films away in a figurative vault (maybe a literal one too?) was going to openly give an AI company use of their most famous characters? Pandora’s Box seemed to open all in the name of equity.

I’d love to believe that this deal was canceled because Josh D’Amaro was against it. That’s total wish casting and almost assuredly not what happened. This appears to be all on OpenAI’s side of things, where they shut down Sora. Now, we can debate why they shut it down. The court of public opinion seems to grow more anti-AI by the day and you’d have to figure that played a role. D’Amaro and other Disney execs aren’t dumb, they likely knew that was happening too and maybe today’s news was a life raft for them to jump onto.

If this all sounds like sour grapes, well, you’re not wrong. I’m vehemently against AI in the creative fields and in just most walks of life. Admittedly, I don’t know enough about it in the medical or scientific fields to have a fully formed opinion there. I’m biased in the debate, of course. Wandering in Disney is a self-run website that relies on distinctive voice and human-written (no one said the voice or writing was good!) posts to make a living. I’m aware that many many people think sites like mine will have to adapt and use AI, and they might be right.

As a consumer, I find the ‘slop’ phrase that is thrown around for AI-created things to be completely accurate. I just don’t get the appeal. While this momentary switch in direction is a nice small victory, I’m still dreading AI-created movies and writing becoming more and more popular. Seeing Disney characters used in that form held absolutely no interest for me.

This isn’t to say that Disney is anti-AI now. In fact, it’s used in different theme park creation often at this point. There’s plenty of reason to believe it takes a backseat to creatives and Imagineers but there is use of it, including the new Olaf debuting at Disney Adventure World in a few days. I would much rather see that use than creating stories and leasing out characters. On that same note, there’s nothing stopping Disney from turning around and investing a billion dollars into a different AI company tomorrow. I would think some lessons have been learned and that won’t happen but, you never know.

Here are 10 ways I’d rather see them invest the money:

1. Guy Selga nailed this one above.
2. Guaranteed funding of the Muppet Show for the duration of my life.
3. 2 of Tokyo Disneyland’s new Space Mountain (the most expensive ride every built) plus 100 million dollars leftover to buy churros for every guest that sets foot in a park for a year.
4. Give the Cast Members more money!
5. Build the new Cars-area in Magic Kingdom and then still have money to rebuild Rivers of America with a refurbished riverboat!
6. Make Avatar 4. Very low on the list of my preferred method of investing a billion dollars but still better than the previous deal.
7. Give every person that steps foot in Magic Kingdom a new pair of $200 sneakers for at least 100 days.
8. Make 6 original Pixar movies that share the same budget as Hoppers and still have $100,000,000 left over.
9. Add more Disney Skyliner
10. Pay human directors, creators and Imagineers to make cool things.

Today’s news was welcome, no matter how we arrived at this point. I hope to see minimal Disney investment and creative works built on the back of AI in the future.

What do you think of the Disney and OpenAI deal falling apart? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below! Planning a Disney trip? Check out our Travel Guides to help get you there! Here’s a link to discount tickets at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. If you enjoy what you’re reading here on Wandering in Disney please subscribe to the blog via email or WordPress and like our social media pages. You can find all of those things on the right side of this page. Thank you very much for reading, we appreciate it!